When do I wear compression socks? (...and other weekend shenanigans)

Oh, weekend! Three days. Any objections? Didn't think so. The longer the weekend, the better. Right? Saturday started out with a birthday party at the gym. My daughter and I went swimming to celebrate her friend, after which I intended to run six miles, but the day got away from me.

I saved my 6-miler for Sunday.

Also, I ran in compression socks from Tiux.

Full disclosure: They were sent to me free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion, which I fully intend to give at some point. But I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to compression gear. Learn by experimentation, right? That's why I agreed to review them.

First impression: They were hard to get on. I think I expected them to be tighter because of the compression factor, and while they WERE tight around my calf muscles and arches, they weren't unbearable. Or wildly noticeable. I guess that's a good thing, right? I mean, I could tell that they were tighter than your average pair of knee-highs, but I didn't feel like I was getting the bejeezus squeezed out of my lower legs. I'm not supposed to feel like that, though. Right? Or am I? Help!

As for their performance during my run, six miles is usually the breaking point for me in terms of soreness and/or discomfort. Sometimes it kicks in, sometimes it doesn't. This time around, it didn't and maybe that's all due to the compression socks. Also, it should be noted, that I had them on for about two hours after my run. You can wear them after your run, too. Right?

I'm looking forward to wearing them again next time I run to see if my experience is the same. I mean, they ARE pink. So there's that. And I've been doing some research regarding compression gear. Again, learn by experimentation. Maybe they'll become a new running staple, maybe they won't. We shall see.

Speaking of "seeing," here are a few scenes from my run.

(This might be the summer that I actually rent one of those paddle boards.)

(There's so much artwork around town, like the circles above and the whale below.)

It was nice to run just for the fun of it. I didn't feel so bad about stopping for pictures.
Or coffee when I finished:

I'm sort of in between running events right now, so there wasn't any pressure to meet a certain time or pace goal. I am thinking about running a 10K in two weeks, or maybe I'll just look ahead to my next half. There's one in July that I'm interested, which means I'd essentially need to be back in training mode by the first week of June.

There's a plan in Train Like a Mother that I might try to follow.
Anyway, I'm rambling.
More on that later.

How was YOUR weekend?

The rest of mine was fairly low-key. I washed my floors on Sunday night (huge accomplishment). Then I subbed a Studio Pump class today and trained one client, after which the kids and I had brunch with my mom (because she took my class) (and my husband was demolishing a bathroom so we let him be).

Also, the weather was gorgeous today so my little family and I played outside a lot.
And I went to the grocery store.

I mean, yum.

And now it's late.
Time for bed. The shenanigans are over.

Time to start the week (officially) tomorrow.

Question: What's your take on compression gear? And if you went running this weekend, what did you see?